Teller is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
magicianMagic is a performing art that entertains audiences by staging tricks or creating illusions of seemingly impossible or supernatural feats using natural means...
, illusionist,
comedianA comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
,
writerA writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and the frequently silent half of the
comedyComedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
magic duo
Penn & TellerPenn & Teller are Las Vegas headliners whose act is an amalgam of illusion and comedy. Penn Jillette is a raconteur; Teller generally uses mime while performing, although his voice can occasionally be heard during their performance...
, along with
Penn JillettePenn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, comedian, illusionist, juggler, bassist and a best-selling author known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team Penn & Teller, and advocacy of atheism, libertarian philosophy, free-market economics, and scientific skepticism.-Early...
. He legally
changed his nameName change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different than their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law...
from "Raymond Joseph Teller" to just "Teller". He is an atheist,
debunkerA debunker is an individual who attempts to discredit and contradict claims as being false, exaggerated or pretentious. The term is closely associated with skeptical investigation of, or in some cases irrational resistance to, controversial topics such as U.F.O.s, claimed paranormal phenomena,...
, skeptic, and Fellow of the
Cato InstituteThe Cato Institute is a libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Edward H. Crane, who remains president and CEO, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the conglomerate Koch Industries, Inc., the largest privately held...
(a
libertarianLibertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
think-tank organization which also lists his partner
Penn JillettePenn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, comedian, illusionist, juggler, bassist and a best-selling author known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team Penn & Teller, and advocacy of atheism, libertarian philosophy, free-market economics, and scientific skepticism.-Early...
as a Fellow). The Cato Institute Association is featured prominently in the Penn and Teller Showtime TV series
Bullshit!.
Early life
Teller was born in Philadelphia,
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
to parents who were of Russian Jewish and
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n descent. Teller only learned of his Jewish ancestry when he was 50 years old. He attended
Central High SchoolCentral High School is a public secondary school in the Logan section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Central, the second-oldest continuously public high school in the United States , was founded in 1836 and is a four-year university preparatory magnet school...
and
Amherst CollegeAmherst College is a private liberal arts college located in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,744 students in the fall of 2009...
and taught
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
at
Lawrence High SchoolLawrence High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States, serving grades 9-12 as part of the Lawrence Township Public Schools. LHS was built in 1967...
in
Lawrenceville, New JerseyLawrenceville is a census-designated place and unincorporated area located within Lawrence Township in Mercer County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the CDP population was 3,887...
. He was selected to be a member of the Central High School Hall of Fame in 2001.
As a performer
Teller began performing with friend Weir Chrisemer as
The Ottmar Scheckt Society for the Preservation of Weird and Disgusting Music. Teller met
Penn JillettePenn Fraser Jillette is an American magician, comedian, illusionist, juggler, bassist and a best-selling author known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team Penn & Teller, and advocacy of atheism, libertarian philosophy, free-market economics, and scientific skepticism.-Early...
in 1974, when they joined a three-person act called
Asparagus Valley Cultural Society, which played in San Francisco. In 1981, they began performing exclusively together as "Penn & Teller", an act that continues to this day.
Teller almost never speaks while performing, although there are occasional exceptions, usually when the audience is not aware of it. For example, he provided the voice of "Mofo the psychic gorilla" in their early Broadway show with the help of a radio microphone cupped in his hand. Teller's trademark silence originated during his youth, when he earned a living performing magic at college
fraternityFraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
parties. He found that if he maintained silence throughout his act, spectators refrained from throwing beer and heckling him and focused more on his performance.
Other exceptions to his silent act include instances in which his face is covered or obscured, as when he spoke while covered with a plastic sheet in the series premiere of
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, and when he was interviewed while in shadow for the 2010 History Channel documentary,
Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery, while Teller spoke at length in an NPR story on Houdini in 2010. Teller appears to have said "Science" in a high-pitched voice in Penn and Teller's appearance on the television show
Bill Nye the Science GuyBill Nye the Science Guy is an educational television program that originally aired from September 10, 1993 to June 20, 1998, hosted by Bill Nye and produced by Buena Vista Television. The show aired on PBS Kids and was also syndicated to local stations, making it the second first-run television...
, namely the episode "Light Optics," but he mouthed the word while Penn used a ventriloquist technique to make it sound as if Teller had spoken while keeping his mouth from moving. Teller also spoke in his 1987 appearance on NBC's
Miami ViceMiami Vice is an American television series produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas as two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami. It ran for five seasons on NBC from 1984–1989...
(a fourth season episode titled, "Like a Hurricane"), and had speaking parts in the movies
Penn & Teller Get KilledPenn & Teller Get Killed is a 1989 dark comedy film directed by Arthur Penn starring magicians Penn & Teller. The duo play themselves, and the plot involves them in a satirical account of what the audience would perhaps imagine the pair doing in their daily lives...
(he speaks in the final scene) and
The AristocratsThe Aristocrats is a 2005 documentary film about the famous dirty joke of the same name. It was conceived and produced by comedians Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza, edited by Emery Emery, and released to theaters by TH!NKFilm...
. He gave voice to an animated version of himself in two episodes of
The SimpsonsThe Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
("
Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder"Hello Gutter, Hello Fadder" is the sixth episode of the eleventh season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 14, 1999. In the episode, Homer becomes a local celebrity after bowling a 300 game, but his fame quickly...
" and "
The Great Simpsina"The Great Simpsina" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons twenty-second season. It aired on April 10, 2011. It was written by Matt Warburton and directed by Chris Clements...
"), and voiced a series of cloned store clerks in Zoey's Zoo, an episode of
Oh Yeah! CartoonsOh Yeah! Cartoons is an American animation showcase that appeared on the Nickelodeon cable channel. Oh Yeah! was an animation project guided by Fred Seibert, former Creative Director of MTV Networks and President of Hanna-Barbera...
, as well as the English version of the 1988 animated feature "Light Years" (Original French: Gandahar) where he was the voice of Octum. Teller speaks at length about magic performance and sleight-of-hand in the documentary "
Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery TourPenn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour is a 2003 television documentary miniseries starring Penn & Teller. The program was created by the CBC in association with Channel 4 Film....
." Teller has been shown screaming and swearing in the Anger Management episode of
Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
As a writer
He collaborated with Jillette on three magic books, and he is also the author of
"When I'm Dead All This Will Be Yours!": Joe Teller - A Portrait by His Kid (2000), a biography/memoir of his father. The book features his father's paintings and cartoons which were strongly influenced by
George LichtyGeorge Lichty was an American cartoonist, creator of the daily and Sunday cartoon series Grin and Bear It. His work was signed Lichty and often ran without mention of his first name....
's
Grin and Bear ItGrin and Bear It is a daily panel created by George Lichtenstein under the penname George Lichty. Initially distributed by United Feature Syndicate, it was syndicated by Field Enterprises beginning in 1940. Field Enterprises was sold in 1986 to King Features Syndicate which continues to distribute...
. The book was favorably reviewed by
Publishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
:
- When Teller, the quiet half of the Penn and Teller showbiz team, made one of his monthly Philadelphia visits to see his parents, Joe and Irene ("Pad" and "Mam"), he was shown 100 unpublished cartoons his father drew in 1939. These "wryly observed scenes of Philadelphia street life," as Teller describes them, are in a loose, sketchy style imitative of the great George Lichty
George Lichty was an American cartoonist, creator of the daily and Sunday cartoon series Grin and Bear It. His work was signed Lichty and often ran without mention of his first name....
(1905-1983), famed for his long-run syndicated Grin and Bear ItGrin and Bear It is a daily panel created by George Lichtenstein under the penname George Lichty. Initially distributed by United Feature Syndicate, it was syndicated by Field Enterprises beginning in 1940. Field Enterprises was sold in 1986 to King Features Syndicate which continues to distribute...
. Teller and his father's "memories began to pump and the stories flowed" after they opened boxes of old letters that Teller read out loud (learning for the first time about a period in his parents' lives that he knew nothing about, such as the fact that his father's name is really Israel Max Teller). Joe's Depression-era hobo adventures led to travels throughout the U.S., Canada and Alaska, and by 1933, he returned to Philadelphia for art study. After Joe and Irene met during evening art classes, they married, and Joe worked half-days as a Philadelphia Inquirer copy boy. When the Inquirer rejected his cartoons, he moved into advertising art just as World War II began. Employing excerpts from letters and postcards, Teller successfully re-creates the world of his parents in a relaxed writing style of light humor and easy (yet highly effective) transitions between the past and present.
Teller is a coauthor of the
Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper "Attention and awareness in stage magic: turning tricks into research" from the November 2008 issue.
In 2010, Teller wrote
Play DeadPlay Dead is an Off-Broadway show co-written by magicians Todd Robbins and Teller, the latter best known as the non-speaking half of the illusionist duo Penn & Teller...
, a "throwback to the spook shows of the 1930s and ’40s" that ran September 12–24 in Las Vegas before opening Off Broadway in New York. The show stars sideshow performer and magician
Todd RobbinsTodd Robbins is an American magician, lecturer, actor, and author.-Biography:He was born in Long Beach, California, the son of soap executive and a schoolteacher. In 1980 he moved to New York City to pursue a career in theater...
.
External links